Coach NMFC Senior Coach Rhyce Shaw - Ben Buckley announces NMFC & Shaw will part ways immediately

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EVERY SECOND COUNTS

UNDER THE METICULOUS RHYCE SHAW, NORTH IS TRAINED TO THE MINUTE

THE countdown clock on the giant scoreboard at North Melbourne’s Arden St training oval is ticking down to zero.

It is seconds before 9am on Monday, November 25, and under Rhyce Shaw every second matters.

Dozens of players are scurrying across the oval, aware that the new coach’s rules are unconditional.

If you are not in place by the affixed time and ready for a two-hour session jam-packed with football education and fitness, you don’t train at all.

“We are trying to make this place our classroom,” Shaw tells the Sunday Herald Sun. We are spending a day inside North Melbourne’s football department.

Shaw says the perception of him as a young man in a hurry is accurate.

He is determined not to waste a minute — not at training, not in fasttracking a list with half of its players under 23, not in pointless meetings in which players quickly switch off.

The 38-year-old’s stunning ascent to AFL senior coaching ranks last year came with a 7-4 win-loss record and a brand of footy that rocked the competition.

Brutal attack on the man, organised behind the ball, and flair in ball movement combined in such a way there was no other contender as Brad Scott’s replacement.

Shaw has aspirations for this football team — and the entire club

— and says it starts with attention to detail.

“Everyone knows I am pretty basic, but I love making people better,” Shaw says.

“I have come from a place (in Sydney) where the standards are so high and everyone understands what is expected and knows their role and then you just go out and play it.

“So I am not ashamed to say it’s similar to what I want to achieve here. I have seen it work.

“The countdown clock is just a symbol of respect for the people who have set up the training session, and it’s respect for each other.

“There are guys ready half an hour before training and guys ready five minutes before, but if we are all out on time and all connect first with no dribs and drabs and late warm-ups , we are all in it together and that’s important.”

ASK Cam Zurhaar how Rhyce Shaw has set the tone for a summer of toil and he guffaws.

What Shaw hasn’t mentioned in an extended sit-down about the club’s levels of discipline is what happens when those minor details aren’t adhered to.

“He has definitely set the tone,” says young bull Zurhaar.

“We had a few mishaps in the first week, a few early-morning sessions, but the little things matter a lot and it’s how we are going to continue through the season.

“We had a few beach sessions and an early-morning run. It was 5.30am and it was an hour away. The boys did the Thousand Steps run (in the Dandenongs) so the boys were up at 4.30am. Some boys forgot to put wellness (ratings) in and missed massages, but it was in week one and it’s now week four and we haven’t done an extra session since.

“Little things matter and we hit it on the head.” Under Monday’s session, arranged by head of performance Jason Lappin, the drills tick over with military precision. In the new era of data, no more circle-work and 100 by 100m sprints. Each drill has a purpose that links to the game plan as Shaw adds layers to the strategies that impressed last year. And Big Brother is most definitely watching. The club’s drone, deployed by its operator Aiden Amenta, hovers 20m above the surface to collect footage. Three other fixed-camera angles add to the levels of accountability. Every coach is specifically stationed to assess each drill.

At one stage there are 24 coaches, medicos and high-performance staff on the oval, all dressed in light blue, attending to a session of fewer than 40 players.

In a 10-versus-10 drill, every action is assessed.

NEW senior assistant coach Jade Rawlings sits in an Arden St box high above the wing. He picks out positives and flaws as a computer tech sits beside him with a laptop. Does Jared Polec put enough pressure on his opponent to disrupt the play? Is Tarryn Thomas vocal enough in a defence drill?

Between drills — again timed to the second on the scoreboard — players are shown passages of play from their 2019 season to reinforce what they are trying to replicate or extract from a certain exercise.

Shaw knows a scout or two might wander down over summer, but he doesn’t care.

He wants everyone to know what North Melbourne’s game plan will look like in 2020. “I am really keen for our fans, our members, for the AFL to understand when North Melbourne take the field they will play a really hard and physical game,” Shaw says. “Really organised and solid in defence and attack with the flair they have been given by God. That is in summary how I want it to be.” He believes a club that often had rivals taking a backward step in those 11 games can sustain that rage, aware it is the only way to win finals footy. “I went to every Greater Western Sydney game in the finals series so I was pretty lucky. I got some cracking games.

“The way they go about it, Richmond, Brisbane this year, they played finals footy and I want to play finals footy as soon as I can.”

Shaw sat and watched his brother Heath’s Giants as they belted the daylights out of the Western Bulldogs with such force that Luke Beveridge complained about MMA-like tactics.

“Oh, that was an unbelievable experience. I was sitting with my dad and two boys (Freddie and Louis) and it was just the way they attacked. It was relentless,” Shaw says. “That’s the type of footy we want to play and it’s sustainable if you want to do it. Sometimes it’s about going out and bashing the opposition, but we do have plans in place to make sure it’s sustainable.”

SHAW has spent his football life in powerhouse AFL clubs Collingwood and Sydney.

He says the size of a club is irrelevant. The ethos is more important than anything.

If there is one message he wants to send to his players it is that North Melbourne can be a powerhouse. Maybe not in literal footprint or membership or revenue, but in its consistent excellence.

“I want us to think big. I want to give the players, the administration, the coaching staff the ability and confidence to believe in themselves and believe anything can happen and we can do this,” he says.

“I have seen big jumps before. I have seen teams go from zero to high up the ladder and sustain it for 10-12 years.

“We are in it to win games of footy and ultimately premierships. I don’t shy away from that. I am not here to win coach of the year. I am here to win a premiership and I am here to win multiple premierships, as every coach is.

“I know we have got a long way to go and I am not getting ahead of myself. If I fail in two, three years, I know I will have tried to do it the right way. That’s all I can do.”

It is the kind of bold statement that some might think too optimistic, but it is clear from Shaw’s time at Sydney that he comes from a club that sets big goals then ruthlessly pursues them.

He will mix that culture with North Melbourne’s DNA, confident this team can carve out a sustained period of success.

“Reading about the history of this club, they have always fought for everything. Even the inception of the club into the VFL, it took them God knows how long to even get into the competition,” Shaw says. “Through the Barassi era they starred and got some guns in and won two flags — one against my old man (Ray) in 1977

— and through the Pago (Denis Pagan) era it was simple footy but brutal.

“Brutal footy and successful footy.

“I just think we have got to be able to believe we can be a team and club that can compete with the best.”

THE players are halfway through another drill and Rawlings is spitting chips. Luke Davies-Uniacke is baulked on the mark and as a result the attacking side runs the ball effortlessly down the field.

Then in a full-ground drill a series of passes from the club’s best field kicks hit the deck.

Rawlings has just finished remarking upon Shaw’s amazing gut feel — when to be a mate, when to interject — when the senior coach calls the group in.

After weeks of sparkling training the players are a few per cent off. Shaw gesticulates, urging them to lift.

Immediately the players respond.

“Now we look like an AFL team,” Rawlings quips.

Rawlings and another assistant communicate via walkie-talkie and decide how to review these breakdowns.

Only an hour after the session the players break into three groups and Rawlings brings up a list of edits inside the club’s theatrette.


This is his message: “No game style will ever succeed if we can’t be consistent in our behaviour.”

As he says, there are acceptable behaviours and “behaviours that make you a bad teammate” .

Rawlings doesn’t eviscerate players for a missed handball or a failure to close on a player receiving the ball.

Instead he highlights what that failure means for the team as he breaks the players into groups of four to ask how they could have defended better. He uses footage and shows them with a laser pointer on a projector screen how one mistake flows on down the field and costs a goal.


Then a Jed Anderson tackle that shuts down an attacking movement gets a tick, as does a Polec three-tackle effort in a congested handball drill.

Rawlings is authoritative but encouraging, and the players respond.

As Luke McDonald says: “We didn’t pick those things up in the past and it’s going to be massive for us.”

Ben Jacobs, still sidelined with concussion issues, says shutting down that metre of space makes all the difference.

“If I am a step off, that’s another 12 touches for my opponent (in a game),” he says.

If three guys are a step off, it’s six goals.” And then the meeting is done in all of 15 minutes and the boys progress to weights.

As veteran Shaun Higgins walks off the track he talks of Shaw’s relentless ambition and how it dovetails into his own premiership hopes. “That is pleasing when you are an older guy,” Higgins says.

“We feel like we have got a list that is more than capable of being competitive week in and week out.

The dynamic and profile of the group suggests we should have those goals Rhyce is expecting of us.

“I am always optimistic of what we can do and nothing has changed.

If anything it’s grown more and more.”

jon.ralph@news.com.au
He gets it. Surprising good article by Ralph.
 

Nobody should overlook reading this article.

As per other posters reaction - "holy s**t"

Some great quotes;
“I am really keen for our fans, our members, for the AFL to understand when North Melbourne take the field they will play a really hard and physical game,” Shaw says. “Really organised and solid in defence and attack with the flair they have been given by God. That is in summary how I want it to be.”

and

"Sometimes it’s about going out and bashing the opposition, but we do have plans in place to make sure it’s sustainable.”

It sounds like a complete overhaul and OMG i'm pumped!
 

shimaburnsgrieg

Premiership Player
Apr 1, 2017
4,359
10,093
AFL Club
North Melbourne
A great read and proactive positive press coverage - exactly what we need.

I have massive doubts on the whole 'brutal' approach to playing, as this type of play won't be sustainable over a month let alone a full year, but what is sustainable is what Shaw is bringing in terms of discipline, training methods, willingness to listen and learn, repeat drills until its done perfectly and getting buy in from the whole squad.

The freshness is fantastic.

We haven't been able to improve the squad through trading and drafting this year so improvement will need to come from within - at least we know we are giving it a crack.
 
A great read and proactive positive press coverage - exactly what we need.

I have massive doubts on the whole 'brutal' approach to playing, as this type of play won't be sustainable over a month let alone a full year, but what is sustainable is what Shaw is bringing in terms of discipline, training methods, willingness to listen and learn, repeat drills until its done perfectly and getting buy in from the whole squad.

The freshness is fantastic.

We haven't been able to improve the squad through trading and drafting this year so improvement will need to come from within - at least we know we are giving it a crack.

Love it. I'm not sure what is or isn't sustainable but it's important that we have a brand of footy and culture that everyone embraces from the top down. Remember back in the day when 'high performance' meant going for those pointless walks at 1/4 and 3/4 time?
 

shimaburnsgrieg

Premiership Player
Apr 1, 2017
4,359
10,093
AFL Club
North Melbourne
Love it. I'm not sure what is or isn't sustainable but it's important that we have a brand of footy and culture that everyone embraces from the top down. Remember back in the day when 'high performance' meant going for those pointless walks at 1/4 and 3/4 time?
That was high level sports science for Bard!

I have been as critical as anyone on Bard but what this article does is draw a line in the sand - it's time to move on and start afresh with Shaw.
 
Jun 9, 2001
37,647
145,038
Fogarty Street
AFL Club
North Melbourne
Other Teams
St Johnstone
A great read and proactive positive press coverage - exactly what we need.

I have massive doubts on the whole 'brutal' approach to playing, as this type of play won't be sustainable over a month let alone a full year, but what is sustainable is what Shaw is bringing in terms of discipline, training methods, willingness to listen and learn, repeat drills until its done perfectly and getting buy in from the whole squad.

The freshness is fantastic.

We haven't been able to improve the squad through trading and drafting this year so improvement will need to come from within - at least we know we are giving it a crack.

Sydney, love them or hate them, essentially played hard contested football for 8 years straight and had a flag and 2 other grand finals to show for it.
 

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Waussie

Premiership Player
Nov 26, 2017
3,375
5,294
AFL Club
North Melbourne
Absolutely loving the approach from Rhys so far.

one thing that sticks out for me is what he’s said to Zuhaar about taking a big hit or dishing one out early in a game to get everyone up and about. I love this, I find north a team you can tell if we’re on or not very early in a match
That comment is a common one with coaches. Some guys build up the adrenalin by giving or taking a knock.
 

Waussie

Premiership Player
Nov 26, 2017
3,375
5,294
AFL Club
North Melbourne
EVERY SECOND COUNTS

UNDER THE METICULOUS RHYCE SHAW, NORTH IS TRAINED TO THE MINUTE

THE countdown clock on the giant scoreboard at North Melbourne’s Arden St training oval is ticking down to zero.

It is seconds before 9am on Monday, November 25, and under Rhyce Shaw every second matters.

Dozens of players are scurrying across the oval, aware that the new coach’s rules are unconditional.

If you are not in place by the affixed time and ready for a two-hour session jam-packed with football education and fitness, you don’t train at all.

“We are trying to make this place our classroom,” Shaw tells the Sunday Herald Sun. We are spending a day inside North Melbourne’s football department.

Shaw says the perception of him as a young man in a hurry is accurate.

He is determined not to waste a minute — not at training, not in fasttracking a list with half of its players under 23, not in pointless meetings in which players quickly switch off.

The 38-year-old’s stunning ascent to AFL senior coaching ranks last year came with a 7-4 win-loss record and a brand of footy that rocked the competition.

Brutal attack on the man, organised behind the ball, and flair in ball movement combined in such a way there was no other contender as Brad Scott’s replacement.

Shaw has aspirations for this football team — and the entire club

— and says it starts with attention to detail.

“Everyone knows I am pretty basic, but I love making people better,” Shaw says.

“I have come from a place (in Sydney) where the standards are so high and everyone understands what is expected and knows their role and then you just go out and play it.

“So I am not ashamed to say it’s similar to what I want to achieve here. I have seen it work.

“The countdown clock is just a symbol of respect for the people who have set up the training session, and it’s respect for each other.

“There are guys ready half an hour before training and guys ready five minutes before, but if we are all out on time and all connect first with no dribs and drabs and late warm-ups , we are all in it together and that’s important.”

ASK Cam Zurhaar how Rhyce Shaw has set the tone for a summer of toil and he guffaws.

What Shaw hasn’t mentioned in an extended sit-down about the club’s levels of discipline is what happens when those minor details aren’t adhered to.

“He has definitely set the tone,” says young bull Zurhaar.

“We had a few mishaps in the first week, a few early-morning sessions, but the little things matter a lot and it’s how we are going to continue through the season.

“We had a few beach sessions and an early-morning run. It was 5.30am and it was an hour away. The boys did the Thousand Steps run (in the Dandenongs) so the boys were up at 4.30am. Some boys forgot to put wellness (ratings) in and missed massages, but it was in week one and it’s now week four and we haven’t done an extra session since.

“Little things matter and we hit it on the head.” Under Monday’s session, arranged by head of performance Jason Lappin, the drills tick over with military precision. In the new era of data, no more circle-work and 100 by 100m sprints. Each drill has a purpose that links to the game plan as Shaw adds layers to the strategies that impressed last year. And Big Brother is most definitely watching. The club’s drone, deployed by its operator Aiden Amenta, hovers 20m above the surface to collect footage. Three other fixed-camera angles add to the levels of accountability. Every coach is specifically stationed to assess each drill.

At one stage there are 24 coaches, medicos and high-performance staff on the oval, all dressed in light blue, attending to a session of fewer than 40 players.

In a 10-versus-10 drill, every action is assessed.

NEW senior assistant coach Jade Rawlings sits in an Arden St box high above the wing. He picks out positives and flaws as a computer tech sits beside him with a laptop. Does Jared Polec put enough pressure on his opponent to disrupt the play? Is Tarryn Thomas vocal enough in a defence drill?

Between drills — again timed to the second on the scoreboard — players are shown passages of play from their 2019 season to reinforce what they are trying to replicate or extract from a certain exercise.

Shaw knows a scout or two might wander down over summer, but he doesn’t care.

He wants everyone to know what North Melbourne’s game plan will look like in 2020. “I am really keen for our fans, our members, for the AFL to understand when North Melbourne take the field they will play a really hard and physical game,” Shaw says. “Really organised and solid in defence and attack with the flair they have been given by God. That is in summary how I want it to be.” He believes a club that often had rivals taking a backward step in those 11 games can sustain that rage, aware it is the only way to win finals footy. “I went to every Greater Western Sydney game in the finals series so I was pretty lucky. I got some cracking games.

“The way they go about it, Richmond, Brisbane this year, they played finals footy and I want to play finals footy as soon as I can.”

Shaw sat and watched his brother Heath’s Giants as they belted the daylights out of the Western Bulldogs with such force that Luke Beveridge complained about MMA-like tactics.

“Oh, that was an unbelievable experience. I was sitting with my dad and two boys (Freddie and Louis) and it was just the way they attacked. It was relentless,” Shaw says. “That’s the type of footy we want to play and it’s sustainable if you want to do it. Sometimes it’s about going out and bashing the opposition, but we do have plans in place to make sure it’s sustainable.”

SHAW has spent his football life in powerhouse AFL clubs Collingwood and Sydney.

He says the size of a club is irrelevant. The ethos is more important than anything.

If there is one message he wants to send to his players it is that North Melbourne can be a powerhouse. Maybe not in literal footprint or membership or revenue, but in its consistent excellence.

“I want us to think big. I want to give the players, the administration, the coaching staff the ability and confidence to believe in themselves and believe anything can happen and we can do this,” he says.

“I have seen big jumps before. I have seen teams go from zero to high up the ladder and sustain it for 10-12 years.

“We are in it to win games of footy and ultimately premierships. I don’t shy away from that. I am not here to win coach of the year. I am here to win a premiership and I am here to win multiple premierships, as every coach is.

“I know we have got a long way to go and I am not getting ahead of myself. If I fail in two, three years, I know I will have tried to do it the right way. That’s all I can do.”

It is the kind of bold statement that some might think too optimistic, but it is clear from Shaw’s time at Sydney that he comes from a club that sets big goals then ruthlessly pursues them.

He will mix that culture with North Melbourne’s DNA, confident this team can carve out a sustained period of success.

“Reading about the history of this club, they have always fought for everything. Even the inception of the club into the VFL, it took them God knows how long to even get into the competition,” Shaw says. “Through the Barassi era they starred and got some guns in and won two flags — one against my old man (Ray) in 1977

— and through the Pago (Denis Pagan) era it was simple footy but brutal.

“Brutal footy and successful footy.

“I just think we have got to be able to believe we can be a team and club that can compete with the best.”

THE players are halfway through another drill and Rawlings is spitting chips. Luke Davies-Uniacke is baulked on the mark and as a result the attacking side runs the ball effortlessly down the field.

Then in a full-ground drill a series of passes from the club’s best field kicks hit the deck.

Rawlings has just finished remarking upon Shaw’s amazing gut feel — when to be a mate, when to interject — when the senior coach calls the group in.

After weeks of sparkling training the players are a few per cent off. Shaw gesticulates, urging them to lift.

Immediately the players respond.

“Now we look like an AFL team,” Rawlings quips.

Rawlings and another assistant communicate via walkie-talkie and decide how to review these breakdowns.

Only an hour after the session the players break into three groups and Rawlings brings up a list of edits inside the club’s theatrette.


This is his message: “No game style will ever succeed if we can’t be consistent in our behaviour.”

As he says, there are acceptable behaviours and “behaviours that make you a bad teammate” .

Rawlings doesn’t eviscerate players for a missed handball or a failure to close on a player receiving the ball.

Instead he highlights what that failure means for the team as he breaks the players into groups of four to ask how they could have defended better. He uses footage and shows them with a laser pointer on a projector screen how one mistake flows on down the field and costs a goal.


Then a Jed Anderson tackle that shuts down an attacking movement gets a tick, as does a Polec three-tackle effort in a congested handball drill.

Rawlings is authoritative but encouraging, and the players respond.

As Luke McDonald says: “We didn’t pick those things up in the past and it’s going to be massive for us.”

Ben Jacobs, still sidelined with concussion issues, says shutting down that metre of space makes all the difference.

“If I am a step off, that’s another 12 touches for my opponent (in a game),” he says.

If three guys are a step off, it’s six goals.” And then the meeting is done in all of 15 minutes and the boys progress to weights.

As veteran Shaun Higgins walks off the track he talks of Shaw’s relentless ambition and how it dovetails into his own premiership hopes. “That is pleasing when you are an older guy,” Higgins says.

“We feel like we have got a list that is more than capable of being competitive week in and week out.

The dynamic and profile of the group suggests we should have those goals Rhyce is expecting of us.

“I am always optimistic of what we can do and nothing has changed.

If anything it’s grown more and more.”

jon.ralph@news.com.au
. We are in it to win games of footy and ultimately premierships. I don’t shy away from that. I am not here to win coach of the year. I am here to win a premiership and I am here to win multiple premierships, as every coach is.

Love the attitude
 

Waussie

Premiership Player
Nov 26, 2017
3,375
5,294
AFL Club
North Melbourne
Ben Jacobs, still sidelined with concussion issues, says shutting down that metre of space makes all the difference.

Hopefully this is just a case of not current info, though I would have thought he'd be out there training by now. Any inside info?
 
That was high level sports science for Bard!

I have been as critical as anyone on Bard but what this article does is draw a line in the sand - it's time to move on and start afresh with Shaw.

Yes i agree, and i guess that was another issue i had under Bard, there was never a line in the sand game where we said we're not going to be pushed around again al al Clarko v Scum. Remember when Spitter was rebuked by the coach for flying the flag against Hodge and Lewis (ok i'll let go now).
 
Sep 11, 2014
10,419
20,223
AFL Club
North Melbourne
Lets hope the message gets through to the players heads, and they fulfil their potential on a personal and club level.

And no more ‘ it doesn’t matter if we win or lose’ bs lines from the players in media interviews

It will. Players including the fans have been screaming for this kind of standard
 
My favourite bit (amongst many) in that article is the line about not caring about other clubs seeing how we plan to play football. It was always one of my pet peeves that we would do ridiculous closed sessions - I don't care about others knowing what we do and I'm glad to see Shaw feels the same.
 
Jan 23, 2019
11,917
43,676
AFL Club
North Melbourne
He’s a ‘basics’ coach.

Not a verbose windbag.


Meeting would last up to 1.5 hours before training started, ONE AND A HALF F$%@ING HOURS! He would get told to stop and let the boys train! As much as I cannot stand BS as a coach, don't pretend to know him as a person, but how we let him get away with that for so long annoys the absolute s**t out of me.

I was saying recently in a PM that I posted something a couple of years ago questioning the direct of our club and a fair few on here questioned the guy I know and whether he really supports North. He's a ******* Shinboner that goes way back and he was freaking right.
 
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